APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis announced that Appleton police officers Paul Christensen and Christopher Biese were justified in fatally shooting Ruben Houston May 15 at Valley Transit Center, and revealed the details of the incident that resulted in the shooting death of Appleton Fire Driver/Engineer Mitch Lundgaard.
Tempelis says Ruben Houston was a passenger on a Lamers bus that went from Wausau to Milwaukee and eventually ended up in Appleton. During the time that Houston spent on the bus, he was reported that he started acting uneasy and eventually went into a medical emergency where he was not fully breathing.
After passengers noticed and contacted 9-1-1, it was determined that Houston overdosed on an opioid.
Emergency crews started to administer the anti-overdose drug Narcan, which revived Houston.
While being questioned, Houston admitted to officers to using morphine earlier in the day.
Tempelis said that Houston fought the idea of seeking additional medical treatment and was opposed to going to the hospital.
During a discussion on what the plan would be, officers requested a pat-down search of Houston to see if he had any drugs or weapons.
Houston refused the search and said he does not like officers touching him.
When officer Biese noticed a bulge near Houston’s pocket, he questioned it.
Tempelis said he became agitated and eventually pulled out a handgun and started shooting.
“When he pulls that gun, that gun is essentially the size of the front part of your hand or your fingers,” said Tempelis, who described the gun as a 380 semi-automatic handgun.
Tempelis said the investigation and body cam video revealed that Houston fired two shots, one striking Officer Paul Christensen and the other striking Lundgaard, who was killed from the single shot.
During the shootout with police, Ruben Houston used bystander Brittany Schowalter as a human shield.
Bystander Brittany Schowalter had a shot graze her skull that caused a traumatic brain injury. She also was shot in the leg and the head. Those shots likely came from police officers.
“Because of the way Mr. Houston positioned her, it is likely she got hit by one of the officers’ shots. However, we don’t know that and won’t know that because there is no DNA that the crime lab was able to get that would be able to indicate how that injury came about in terms of whose gun it was,” Tempelis explained.
Temeplis says Houston fired all five shots in his gun. She says Biese and Christensen combined to fire 20 shots.
According to the District Attorney, Houston died at the hospital and had injuries to his abdomen, arms, and fingers.
